sooooo....... air cleaner duct

How important are they?

Because I don't have one. :redface:

Do I need to get one? and why?

 

Are you referring to the Snorkel?

If thats what you are talking about then yes you should get one....Just my opinion ...others will tell you that you dont need it.

 

how dirty is your environment? lot of leaves and bugs etc?
the snorkels are really important on the carbed bikes. they will run poorly with out them.
but, your bike will run fine with out it.
on the fuel injected bikes it is there mainly to reduce noise and aide in keeping debree out.
the snorkel is said to increase air velocity entering the air box, but my bike still has great low end torque.

im sure there are a million of these snorkels floating around and some one would be happy to give you theirs. you could always give it a try and see if you want to keep it...

 

Actually if it's the snorkel, the only thing it does is build more low-end torque by reducing the air flow into two cylindrical collumns (the snorkel is actually split into two - there is a center wall). It creates more torque at the low end and, more stable idle and better fuel burn at idle and off idle (only because the VFR doesn't run well below 3,000 rpm, as with any of the smaller V-4's Honda makes).

A lot of guys remove it. Honestly, I think if the center wall was removed and reinforced so the tube wouldn't suck in on the center - that it would actually not cause such a problem.

What you'll see, what I saw anyway, was a lot of herky-jerky throttle response with it on. When I took it off, it was reduced. But I think an exhaust upgrade right off would have made it go away alltogether.

I just bought a used VFR Intake a couple of months back to play with it some more now that I have my Exhaust more opened up - and am gonna play with the snorkel - idea...basically using different lengths and diameters and see what the results are along with some of that foam filter material and different shape air filter screen surrounds. I noticed already that changing the shape in the roof and upper deck - made a big difference in low-end torque, but caused reflection and cylinder filling is kinda funny off idle. Wish I could work on it a few days with a dedicated fuel cell in place of the tank - sucks taking it on and off every time!!

Might have been a little bit more then you wanted to hear.

This is the Snorkel btw:




Here's where it goes:




And here's it on the motor:

 

Yeah, I was referring to the snorkel (had no idea that's what it was called, lol) But thanks for your responses, I'll probably just not get a new one unless I happen to stumble upon one for free. I hadn't noticed anything weird with my bike so I figured it wasn't necessary, but I still wanted to check with all you fine folks just in case. :tongue: